Barefoot and rolling his big-wheeled ice cream cart along the shoreline, Eric Somershoe is a familiar fixture for families visiting Ventnor City’s beaches. Stand with him for a moment and you’ll see children clamoring for popsicles or Cherry Screwballs, parents trailing behind.
Known to beachgoers as “Shoe,” Somershoe has spent the past eight summers selling ice cream on the beach, continuing Ventnor’s long-standing tradition of veteran ice cream vendors.
While most shore towns have shifted to private contracts, Ventnor remains one of the few where that tradition still holds — a practice dating back to World War II.
“When the veterans came back from the Second World War, Congress implemented a law basically giving veterans opportunities to have different jobs, and the beach towns, one of the things they created were ice cream men, and you had to be a veteran to be an ice cream man,” Somershoe explained. “There’s a few guys that have been selling for 40-plus years still on the beach.”
Somershoe praises the city’s commissioners for preserving the tradition, noting that lasting friendships have formed with other veteran ice cream men in Ventnor.
“We all have a different story. I’m the only Coastie. There’s a few Marines. There’s a few Navy guys. A few Air Force guys,” he said.
The Ventnor native and self-proclaimed beach bum has a passion for the beach that runs deep: his first job was working as an ice cream runner, and he had a stint as a chair boy. He served on the Ventnor City Beach Patrol from 1987 to 1993, left to enlist in the Coast Guard, then rejoined from 1997 to 2005.
“The only thing left to do is actually sit on the beach,” Somershoe joked.
But it was his best friend’s father, John McLaughlin, an ice cream man who spent decades on the beach, that set him on the path to selling ice cream.
“His son and I were lifeguards together in Ventnor,” he said. “When I got back from service, he would say to me, ‘You need to be down here selling ice cream. You need to get out of the stand.’ And I jokingly said to him, ‘When you get wheels.’”
About nine years ago, Somershoe said he got a call “out of the blue” from McLaughlin to let him know he was retiring and encouraged him to take over his license — and that the cart now had wheels.
Most summer mornings, he cuts up ice, fills his cart and treks to the beach, where he sells about 100 pieces a day.
“I have a very large selection of like 28 different things I sell. The big joke is: how do I get it in my cart? As I’m leaving the shop, I’ll be lying on top of my box, slowly pressing everything down so it doesn’t crush each other,” he said. “On a big holiday, I’ve emptied my cart a few times.”
Kids who come up short on cash can count on Somershoe to spot them. And he always makes sure the lifeguards get treated, too.
“One of the traditions John used to do was to give all the lifeguards free ice cream. Four o’clock in the afternoon, everyone needs a little pick me up, so the lifeguards that are working the section of the beach I walk up and down, they always know they’ve got free ice cream all summer long,” he said.
He’s also spent the past eight summers bringing his son, 13-year-old Tristan, along with him. In the early days, Tristan would sit on top of his dad’s cart as it rolled down the beach.
“Different summers, I’d have his boogie board hanging off the back of my ice cream cart,” Somershoe said. “When he was younger, we were always on the go, going from one stand to the next and letting him go swim.”
While it’s led to years of memorable summers for father and son, Somershoe has also helped create lasting memories for countless beachgoing families, many of whom he’s come to know over the years.
When not on the beach, Somershoe works as a behavioral specialist, providing in-home counseling for children ages 5 to 18, including those with autism or mental health challenges. On the beach, he said he tries to offer extra support to parents of autistic children who seem to be struggling.
“Just giving them that little extra support of being like, ‘It’s okay. Let him take his time,’” Somershoe said.
For those he gets to know, he’ll sometimes set aside a specific treat he knows the child prefers, hoping it’ll lead to “good moments on the beach, not tough ones.”
“If I’m running low, I’ll stash a Spider-Man or a Chipwich or something, knowing that that’s what that child wants and giving that parent that extra moment on the beach where they don’t have to worry,” he said.
From his time working on the beach patrol and in the Coast Guard, Somershoe said he always has one eye on the water and still has a skill for spotting lost kids.
In one case, a family he’d known on the beach for years lost their autistic son. When he spotted him walking away with a stranger, he intervened.
“I walked up to him like, ‘You’re not his dad, I’ll take him,’” he said, explaining he put the child on his cart and wheeled him back to his relieved family.
“He had come running down the beach looking for me,” he explained.
Though Somershoe can’t undersell the perks of a job that lets him be barefoot and get a tan, he said it’s “the smiles” that ended up being the best part.
“It’s been eight years, and I’ve watched my son grow up, and I’ve watched this whole community of kids grow up in front of my eyes,” he said.
And he has no plans to slow down.
“I’m going to do it until I can’t walk,” he said.
Madison Russ is an award-winning journalist, copy editor and adjunct professor of communication based in Atlantic County. An Ocean City native, Madison is passionate about telling stories that matter to locals, often spotlighting nonprofits and exploring the area’s vibrant arts scene.
